What's at stake:

The Governor's proposed changes to NY's climate law (CLCPA) amount to a sweeping rollback of a law crafted over two decades by communities across the state, many of whom are at the front lines of the climate and environmental justice crisis.

In 2019, lawmakers passed the CLCPA, which set powerful goals for lowering the state’s greenhouse gas emissions and enacting strong protections for environmental justice communities, which are largely Black and Brown neighborhoods that have long faced environmental racism, forcing the people there to endure a disproportionate burden from environmental hazards like air pollution and extreme heat. 

Rolling back the climate law will exacerbate this harm. Legislative leadership in the State Senate and Assembly must hear from us to demand that environmental justice community protections are upheld in the final budget deal. 

Here's the letter you'll send:

Dear Speaker Heastie and Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins,

My name is [NAME] and I’m a New Yorker in ZIP code [ZIP]. 

I write to express deep concern that environmental justice considerations are not being represented in budget deliberations regarding the future of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). Environmental and climate justice are the foundation of the climate law, and efforts to alter, and even weaken, it will have profound impacts on the communities the law was designed to protect. 

The Governor’s failure to abide by the CLCPA and release regulations to lower emissions in the state has already cost environmental justice (EJ) communities, not just in greenhouse gas reductions, but in health, dollars, and dignity. As the legislature deliberates options to satisfy the emission reduction obligation, impacts on environmental justice communities must be front and center. 

• The CLCPA is explicit: at least 35 to 40-percent of clean energy investments and benefits must flow to disadvantaged communities. The climate law requires all state decision-making to account for impacts on environmental justice communities. Despite the clear direction of the law, we have yet to see meaningful progress on these fronts. We urge you to use this budget as an opportunity to strengthen these protections by increasing spending for disadvantaged communities, requiring all state agencies to adopt investment guidance, and monitoring and tracking that spending.
  
  

• If a cap and invest scheme is advanced in the budget, it must include provisions to guard against pollution hotspots and emissions increases in historically overburdened communities. Critical protections must ensure reductions in pollution in disadvantaged communities and avoid unintended spikes in emissions. Absent guardrails, there is no assurance that the benefits of a cap and invest program will be shared equitably throughout the state, a scenario we have witnessed with the implementation of cap and invest in California.
  
  

• If anything, the lax implementation of the climate law calls for the strengthening of provisions on co-pollutants responsible for detrimental health impacts on disadvantaged communities. Co-pollutant reduction regulations should be mandated on a separate track. We cannot afford to rely on cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to also reduce localized pollution and improve the health of our communities and families.
   

• Any amendments to the climate law must abide by Section 7(3) of the Climate Law, ensuring no disproportionate burdens on disadvantaged communities, especially when it comes to the energy delivered to and generated in our communities. For this reason, we strongly urge the inclusion of a moratorium on the “repowering” of fossil fuel power plants in and adjacent to environmental justice communities.

Your commitment to environmental justice and equity is what made the CLCPA and New York a national leader. We strongly urge you to stand with us to protect and strengthen that commitment.

Sincerely,

[YOUR NAME]